Upgrade to GTX1060 with 3GB or 6GB as Livestreamer?

[tunergi]

I'm currently using a Ryzen 1600x, a GTX 960 with 4GB VRAM & 16GB of DDR4 RAM on Windows 10 and I thought that this would be enough to play games at low graphic settings at 144fps while also livestreaming them at 720p 48fps, however while livestreaming & playing Overwatch at almost lowest graphic settings I can't even get a stable average of 120fps in-game and dip under 90fps fairly often (while the livestream runs smoothly over CPU encoding at 48fps nonetheless).

So this leaves me with two questions:
1. Is upgrading my GPU in this scenario even the correct solution, or is other hardware or software the issue I should tackle to average higher fps while livestreaming?
2. Is a GTX1060 with 3GB VRAM fine for running games like Overwatch or Rocket League at 144fps while livestreaming or do I need 6GB ?

Again, all I want is to run games at low graphic settings at 144fps while livestreaming at 720p 48fps or 60fps.

 

[vapour]

To me, gpu is not the reason, are you overclocking your cpu? what chipset is it? ram speed and running at? Streaming is mostly CPU intensive. Check your cpu/gpu usage and you should be able to tell.

 

[tunergi]

To me, gpu is not the reason, are you overclocking your cpu? what chipset is it? ram speed and running at? Streaming is mostly CPU intensive. Check your cpu/gpu usage and you should be able to tell.

I'm not overclocking my CPU, using the Asus Prime B350-PLUS & RAM speed should be 2400MHz. I always have my GPU & CPU usage displayed while livestreaming and my CPU is always averaging around 60-70%, never ever going over 90%. My GPU on the other hand is constantly hitting 100%, sometimes dropping to 90%. Hopefully that info helps you.

Again, the stream itself runs fine. It's just that my in-game fps goes around 100-120 fps during streaming (with the above usage numbers) with low graphics settings which sucks.

 

[vapour]

then this is a better upgrade for you I think:

$200 after 20 rebates: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131720&cm_re=RX_580-_-14-131-720-_-Product

it is on par with 1060 6gb
what psu do you have?
Your ram speed is kind of on the low end for Ryzen, try overclocking too

 

[uppercut4u]

Go with the GTX 1060 6gb

 

[tunergi]

then this is a better upgrade for you I think:

$200 after 20 rebates: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131720&cm_re=RX_580-_-14-131-720-_-Product

it is on par with 1060 6gb
what psu do you have?
Your ram speed is kind of on the low end for Ryzen, try overclocking too

Wow, that looks like a great deal. I got three issues with this though: 1. I kinda like GeForce Experience for their graphic settings, 2. I live in Germany so I'd have to pay like 15 bucks of shipping cost and it would take a few more days to arrive here & 3. what's with all the bad reviews? Anyways, I could try living without GeForce Experience & despite the shipping costs its still a better deal than buying it over Amazon.de or buying the 1060 3gb, but the bad reviews worry me a bit.

I bought my PSU a long time ago but if I remember correctly it should be the Corsair CX600M.

At the time where I upgraded to Ryzen and bought new RAM it was very expensive so I couldn't go higher, and I have very very bad luck when it comes to overclocking anything so I'd rather not do it anymore :/

Go with the GTX 1060 6gb

Okay, but why the extra 40 bucks for 6gb instead of just going with 3gb? I'm gonna play nearly all of my games with low graphic settings and high fps so why do I need 6gb?
Edit: Just played Forza Horizon 4 at nearly lowest settings and my VRAM usage goes up to 4gb, so I guess a 3gb 1060 won't do.

 

[ohenryy]

If you want a great vga for 150$, better than 1060 3Gb I would go for the Asrock 570 4Gb Phantom... it's as good as the 1060 3Gb or even better for less money.
I wouldn't get a 3Gb card today, 2019 is just around the corner

 

[t99]

Get the 1060 6gb or 580 8gb and your set. Make this decision based on price. The 580 should cost less and perform better in some games or worse in some, but overall they are similar. If you can save around 50$ go with the 580

I dont think thr cpu is am issue. The 2600 streams and runs games amazing from benchmarks I've seen with a gtx1080ti. The 1600 is fairly close to the 2600 and the 2600 killed it when it came to doing both. Turning resolution down doesn't always help. Could force the cpu to get used more.

 

[tunergi]

I wouldn't get a 3Gb card today, 2019 is just around the corner

Right, and as I edited into my previous comment, running a new title like Forza Horizon 4 at pretty much lowest settings already requires atleast 4gb vram, so 6-8gb it is.

Get the 1060 6gb or 580 8gb and your set. Make this decision based on price. The 580 should cost less and perform better in some games or worse in some, but overall they are similar. If you can save around 50$ go with the 580

I dont think thr cpu is am issue. The 2600 streams and runs games amazing from benchmarks I've seen with a gtx1080ti. The 1600 is fairly close to the 2600 and the 2600 killed it when it came to doing both. Turning resolution down doesn't always help. Could force the cpu to get used more.

Actually, on Amazon.de the RX580 8gb costs as much as the GTX 1060 6gb (~275€, that's around 317$), atleast the ones I got in mind. The only RX580 that costs less is the PowerColor one but that one has mediocre reviews and supposedly really loud fans which I would hate.

Yea, since I bought the 1600x I never had any CPU related issues, streams, records and plays games perfectly fine based on my average usage.

I decided that I'm gonna buy a GTX 1060 6GB from Gigabyte for 275€ (~317$). Neither 3gb nor 4gb seem to be enough VRAM for games nowadays and since I'll be playing most games for frames and not graphics I'm probably not gonna need the 8GB of the slightly more expensive RX 580 to have that extra VRAM for extra prettier graphics. Also, I'm just more comfortable with using Nvidia cards (didn't kept me from switching from Intel to AMD cpu's though huh).
Thank you all for providing feedback!